Mom of 8 Crazy Monkeys

The difference between this and a circus is that circuses run with a sense of order. Chantel Kowdrysh loves her children, all eight of her noisy, crazy, joyous, running about screaming, pushing, fighting, ADHD child, and developmentally issued children. It doesn’t matter if they are enjoying the hell of shopping together, the nightmarish adventure of traveling anywhere together, the insanity of school mornings or the quiet tenderness of a few moments between mother and child. She’s determined to make it work, or go even more insane trying. Chantel spends what quiet time she can get writing for the magazine Mississauga Kids, and various parenting web sites. If she cannot be found at her laptop sipping a Wildberry, then she can be found behind the wheel of her 15 seater van, with a Timmies triple, triple. A former Canadian National Gymnast, she traded in her six pack abs for an 8 pack of kids and now she is looking for the keg. Check out her blog at momof8crazymonkeys.com

People are always shocked to learn that my twins have two naps a day and are in bed by 6pm every night. However, it hasn’t always been this easy. My first two children probably had the worse sleep habits ever.  My first born didn’t go to sleep until way past 11pm and I had to sleep beside her until she finally fell asleep. My second child slept in my bed well until he was six or seven and I had to play with his hand in a certain way or else...

While in NICU the twins received the standard hearing screen tests as do all newborns.  They passed, they continued to thrive, they came home, I moved on best I could as a mom to 8 children.  As the twins were premature I didn’t expect milestones to come at the typical time and so I was patient.  But by the time my little guys were 8 months (6.5 corrected) I was concerned about Tanner. Tanner was always happy and smiling but something...

With the twins first birthday just around the corner (wow how time flies!) I have had many people ask me what have I got planned?  Well nothing yet, but with eight kiddies in the house let’s just say I have party planning down to a pretty sane art form and I am happy to share some of the things that have worked for me! Spread the news: Give out those invitations at least two weeks before the big day to allow people to work it into...

The other day I had my 5yr old and 6yr old home from school in the afternoon.  They had some lunch and I put on Treehouse for them to watch while I went upstairs to put the twins down for a nap.  Next thing you know, I hear my 6yr old son screaming at his brother to change the station.  My 6yr. Old has Aspergers and I knew the sound of his screams meant something was scary. Big time scary. I quickly ran downstairs and asked them what was...

My request was straight forward and simple. All I wanted was one night where I could sleep longer than 2 hours.  Was this an unreasonable request?  Apparently so. The moment you cast your eyes on that positive pregnancy test you can throw your usual 8 hours a night sleep out the window along with any sexy underwear and bras you own as well.  Sleep wasn’t going to happen much and hey I got it I understood – but really 13 years?  This...

Why is it that children are born with their brains already wired to learn so much, yet they really know nothing about the bathroom?  I don’t know about other people but in my house of plenty the bathroom has become a regular playroom of sorts, a place to hide away and build secret forts, the bedroom for various Barbies, little people and stuffed animals.  A lab for water experiments, and other explosive experiments I won’t discuss. ...

I am not exactly sure what type of drug I was on when I agreed to a five day trip with the hubby, 6 children under 13 and twin newborns.  Not only would we be at a beach (yikes all those children and water!) but we would be staying in a rustic old cabin. (I have never been an outdoorsy type) and then there is the small issue of the Thatcher and Tanners schedule – okay earth muffins stop right there!  My first 6 children really never had such...

The other day I was marvelling at how my surprise little babies Thatcher and Tanner were growing.  They have finally started to smile and babble and act like real little people.  I took a sip of my coffee and suddenly froze.  Crap!  I have been through this 6 times already and know the drill. After the babbling, will come crawling, will come pulling up, then walking and climbing and attempted talking and then finally the inevitable –...

When pregnant with my identical twin boys I went through a rollercoaster of emotions. They shared a placenta and had many health issues - twin to twin, and IGUR being the main two. At one point I was told to be prepared for the demise of one of the twins. Despite all odds, the boys managed to stay in the warm comforts of my womb until exactly 34 weeks. It wasn’t a surprise that they were pre-mature but their weights were pretty good. Tanner...